Jay-Z was out at an NYC club with Damon Dash the day Nas dropped “Ether,” and tried to have the song shut down, but the DJ refused.
The beef between Jay-Z and Nas was one of the most monumental in Hip-Hop history.
One of the standout moments of the feud was the release of Nas’ scathing diss track “Ether” in 2001. Jay-Z followed up with “Supa Ugly,” which was so vicious Hov’s mother called him to tell him he went too far.
While the beef continued until 2005, the day “Ether” came out was a tense one for Jay-Z. During a recent interview, Rass Kass recalled the day it dropped and changed everything.
“It had to be 10 a.m., 11 a.m. when Nas bops in,” he recalls. “He’s usually very chill. Every time I’ve encountered him, he’s humble and nice. Not to say he wasn’t humble then, but he walked in, boppin’. I remember for like an hour, me him and Premier talking, like an overview of the record […] At the time, Jay was crushin’ everything.
“It was interesting watching the changing of the guards […] I knew some of the things that Nas was sayin’. I didn’t even know all of it, as far as the personal jabs on that record. I lived with JAY-Z for a summer, so I just knew it was clinically written deadly. It was a deadly written, personal record. ”
Jay-Z Reacts To “Ether” At The Club
However, later that night, Rass Kas saw Hov’s live reaction to “Ether,” when he went out to a local New York City club. JAY-Z and fellow Roc-A-Fella co-founder Damon Dash were also in attendance when the DJ played the diss. Ras says Jay-Z was unamused and told Dame Dash to get the DJ to stop the track, but the DJ refused.
“The ironic part is I saw [Nas] during the day at the studio, then at night, I went out to the club,” he continued. “We went out and saw Jay and Dame at the club […] They played ‘Ether’ in the club and Jay was heated, and I remember that. I remember him saying, ‘Dame, tell that n#### to turn that s### off.’
According to Rass Kass, the DJ wouldn’t cut the song because the crowd was loving it. “But the club was going up, and that’s when I knew it was over. The DJ was like, ‘F### that,’ and played that s###. And the club went up. That’s when I knew Nas won. The streets had spoken. The DJ played it and Jay was in the building […] Nas beat Jay,” he concluded.